𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗛 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗪𝗪𝗔𝗟 𝟭𝟰𝟰𝟮: 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗔𝗡 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗔 𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗛 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗘 𝟯𝟬 𝗗𝗔𝗬𝗦

The astronomical new moon of Shawwal will insha Allah be on Tuesday 11th may 2021 (equivalent to 29th Ramadan 1442) at 7:59pm Kano time. The above means that at sunset on Tuesday, the new moon of Shawwal isn’t “born”. And it also means no moon can be sighted on that day at sunset as such we will fast on Wednesday to complete 30 days. Thursday 13th May will be 1st Shawwal 1442 and Eid el fitr day Insha Allah.

Furthermore, taking a look the moon set and sunset times across cities, it will be clear that on Tuesday May 11th, the moon will set before sunset by at least 5 minutes in kano and this is also true for Makkah. This moon that will set is the old moon (Ramadan) because the new one wouldn’t have been born at that time.

Invariably (INSHA ALLAH), no moon can be sighted on Tuesday because the old moon cannot be sighted (since it will set before sunset) and the new moon isn’t born at sunset. By implication it means that the National moon sighting committee (NMSC) wouldn’t accept sighting claims on Tuesday may 11th for the above reasons.

To buttress further, Tuesday 11th may is one of the (so called) impossible days of sighting the moon. Deployment of the most powerful telescope would not help either because you can only see what is there. The moon is simply not there to see.

Recall that in the beginning of Ramadan, sighting claims were accepted by the NMSC because the Ramadan moon was born before sunset and the moon set after sunset at an age of about 15hrs 7 mins. Although it is difficult to have sighted such moon with the naked eyes, it wasn’t one of the impossible days, this was probably why the committee accepted the sighting and we commenced Ramadan on Tuesday April 13th.

Ordinarily such a feat should be in the record books because the youngest sighted moon (by naked eyes) was 15 hours 32 minutes, and ours was 15hrs 7 mins!

At this juncture, it is expedient to mention that the NMSC does not exclusively use calculations to declare the beginning or end of lunar month. Nigeria still adopts naked eye sighting as the basis of declaring the beginning or end of these months but these calculations are used to rule out wrong sightings especially on days that it is impossible to sight the moon such as Tuesday 11th may 2021.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝘀 𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗻?
Such claims will not be accepted for the foregoing reasons. Let us also remember that if such sighting claims happen, it could be one of so many things people mistakenly see as the moon. In this era, there are numerous man made flying objects, helicopters , aeroplanes, and satellites that sometimes reflect sunlight in such a way that people see it as the moon. A piece of C-shaped thin streak of cloud, a jet smoke or even a small piece of hair stuck to eye glasses, has been considered the Hilal by many sincere Muslims.

Sometimes the zeal of sighting brings sheer imagination that the person thinks he or she has seen the moon.
Emphatically speaking, any sighting claim in the evening Tuesday 11th may will only be taken as the figment of such claimant’s imagination, for there’s nowhere in the world, 60⁰ North and south of the equator that the elongation is 8⁰ or that the moon is 5⁰ above the horizon!

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?

The saudi situation is no different from ours. After all they are 2 hours ahead of us, so the new moon will be born at about 9pm in makkah. At sunset in makkah no moon can be sighted because the old waning moon will set before sunset by say, 5 minutes while the new one isn’t born yet.

This will mean that for both Saudi’s Ummul Qura or Hijri calendars, Ramadan will complete 30 days Insha Allah.

May Allah accept our Ibada.

Wallahu A’alam

Imaam Okunuga Nurudeen

Wajabat Dawah Movt of Nigeria